Friday, November 20, 2009

By now we have all heard about the Manhattan Declaration put out by various religious right figures and groups urging, among other things, non-cooperation with laws that in any way recognize same sex couples.

“This is a disturbing call for anarchy from a group of radical clerics and activists who believe they don’t have play by the same rules as other taxpaying Americans."
And according to the blog Instaputz, there is another reason to not only oppose this document but also raise the alarm about it.

Some of the names those signing the declaration aren't a surprise. They are the usual folks who oppose lgbt equality - Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Maggie Gallagher, Gary Bauer, etc.

Akinola is the Anglican Primateof the Church of Nigeria. He is also Bishop of Abuja (Nigeria's capital) and Archbishop of Province III, which covers the northern and central parts of the country.

According to Instaputz, he supported a 2006 Nigerian anti-gay bill which:

called for five years imprisonment for anyone who "performs, witnesses, aids, or abets" a same-sex marriage, and anyone who engaged in public advocacy or associations supporting the rights of lesbian and gay people.

Editor's note - I inaccurately included another silly "educational" film, Girls Beware into this entry. It had nothing to do with the lgbt community. Since alerted to that fact, I eliminated it out of this post.

Throughout the years, the lgbt community has had to deal with being portrayed in some of the most offensive manners.

The "educational" film, Boys Beware is probably one of the most egregious.

The film, created in 1961 by Sid Davis Productions (Davis portrays the "homosexual pedophile murderer) plays out like an Anita Bryant Twilight Zone dream. It features lgbts as predatory monsters out to take the innocence of children in a manner that leaves nothing (absolutely nothing, not a single solitary thing) to the imagination.

Nowadays this film may seem funny except for the fact that there are some people who still believe these awful lies about lgbts.

And let's not forget how much damage this film did to the psyche of young and old lgbts back in the day in which they were made.

The Center for American Progress has just come out with a new report detailing and refuting the lies told about marriage equality in D.C. by minister Harry Jackson.

Jackson, a black minister, is probably considered the most visible person of color in religious right circles. His highly unsuccessful efforts to push a referendum on gay marriage in D.C. has given him even more press.

And as the report shows, he doesn't seem to know or care that he is stretching the truth:

Recent and credible research has convincingly shown that Jackson’s views of the “privileged”—and largely white—gay and lesbian community are completely untrue and inaccurate. The Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law has extensively analyzed credible government data comparing families in D.C. headed by same-sex couples to those headed by heterosexual couples.

The Williams Institute researchers found that same-sex couples living in the district are diverse in terms of race and income, among other factors. There are about 3,500 same-sex couples living in the district, including 225 who are legally married and 3,300 who are not married. The district has by far the highest concentration of unmarried same-sex partners of any state—13.2 per 1,000 households in DC; the next highest is Maine at 6.8.

Annual earnings of same-sex couples v. straight married couples in DCA 2007 analysis found that same-sex couple households can be found in every part of the district, and comprise 1.5 percent of all households and 5.1 percent of all coupled households. More than a quarter of these couples are African American, as the table-figure below shows. All told, one-third of same-sex couples living in the district are not white.

And contrary to Jackson’s claims of the gay community’s privilege and ability to earn more money than straight people, yearly earnings of men in same-sex couples are actually lower than those of married men, as shown below. Men in same-sex couples in D.C. earn about $67,000 on average each year, while men who are married to women earn $70,000. And women in same-sex couples in the district earn $43,000 on average, while women married to men earn $45,000.

While I seriously doubt that Jackson will respond to this report, it is important that people are educated, particularly African-Americans about what he is doing.

Jackson's comments are meant to exploit false resentment against the lgbt community by the African-American community.

When he goes on about "privileged rich white people," he conveniently forgets the lgbts of color who are also in this fight.

I can't but wondering if his convenient forgetfulness is meant to be intentional.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.